Rise of the e-con: the internet style icon

The web has given rise to a new breed of fashion guru. You no longer have to be a celebrity or model – just a fashion enthusiast happy to put yourself on the line, online. Kelly Bowerbank picks out 10 of 2009's cyber sages

Alix Bancourt has created a French fairytale wonderland at her hit fashion blog, The Cherry Blossom Girl. Photograph: PR

Rise of the e-con: the internet style icon

The web has given rise to a new breed of fashion guru. You no longer have to be a celebrity or model – just a fashion enthusiast happy to put yourself on the line, online. Kelly Bowerbank picks out 10 of 2009's cyber sages

Tuesday 24 November 2009 05.30 EST
First published on Tuesday 24 November 2009 05.30 EST

What do Reese Witherspoon and Tavi, a self-proclaimed "tiny 13-year-old dork", have in common? They're both cover stars on glossy magazines and get free clothes from critically-acclaimed fashion labels, for a start. Tavi – or Style Rookie, as she's more commonly known – is part of a growing movement of fashion bloggers that has been gaining momentum and influence over the past three years. Susie Lau of Style Bubble, a veteran of the revolution, routinely attracts around 15,000 unique readers to her site each day. Others, including Yumi Neely of Fashion Toast, make a living from their wardrobe journals with strategically placed adverts for well-known labels, and well-integrated ebay stores. It is now commonplace for these established econs to appear in glossy magazines under headings like "steal her style", and a few – like Karla Deras of Karla's Closet – have even starred in online advertising campaigns for established high-street brands.

As a result of these success stories, the blogosphere is swamped with wannabe e-cons – bubble heads with their bottoms out all desperate to enlighten us sartorially. So how do you know who is worth a glance? Our list includes some of the most influential, popular and interesting style bloggers of 2009, starting with the well-established – Alix Bancourt of The Cherry Blossom Girl website, who has a loyal global following – and ending with Elizabeth Ammerson, a relative newbie to the style blogging scene (in fact, she's practically unknown and doesn't post too often, but she's definitely one to watch).

Like the Air song that inspired the name of her blog, Alix has more than a touch of whimsy about her. She's created a French-fashion-fairytale land overflowing with feminine clothes, romantic scenery and ambrosial treats. The pastel shades, floral prints and intricate embroideries are rescued from sickly sweetness with Breton t-shirts, carefully selected accessories and the occasional smattering of denim. A lot of the clothes she wears are of her own design, and here it becomes evident that she is just as inspired by her stints interning at Alexander Mcqueen and Chloe as she is by the films of Walt Disney and Sofia Coppola.

Rumi is a pouty, tiny-denim-shorts-wearing "epic" blogger who's spawned a whole boring army of copycats. Once you forgive her this, and the fact that she named her blog after a complex-carbohydrate source which she has clearly never eaten, what you are left with is a very compelling read. American lifestyle brand RVCA agree (they hired her to front their seasonal look book) but it's Esteban Cortazar, the designer appointed to reinvigorate the French label Emanuel Ungaro (and who left in July), who is most transfixed by her. For Cortazar, Rumi is "the girl from the mood board" that inspired his most recent collection. This scored her an invite to the brand's Paris show earlier this year and some much-coveted designer swag.

Michelle Haswell, Scottish fashion-award nominee and one half of Kingdom of Style

Imagine the personification of this season's best made-up fashion term (glunge – that's "glamorous grunge" to you and I) and Michelle immediately springs to mind. A graphic designer by trade and one half of blogging duo Kingdom of Style, Scottish lass Michelle has helped brand some of the internet's most coveted cult designers, including Norwegian Wood (glorious harness wear) and Black Milk (fierceness for the legs). Her penchant for Jean-Pierre Braganza can be a little tiring at times, but her distinct look – which veers from extreme girly to PVC vamp – always gives food for thought. Whether she's layering her latest craft purchase from Etsy with a DIY creation or throwing on something shiny and finishing off with a hard accessory - a smattering of studs on a boot or a bondage-style belt – her ensembles always maintain a charming goth-rock undertone which sets her apart from her younger contemporaries. This formula has seen her score tickets to London fashion week shows, bag some fabulous fashion freebies (including a showgirly head piece that would make Kylie herself green with envy), and get nominated for Most Stylish Female at the Scottish style awards.

Fearless, inventive, endearing – just a few words that spring to mind when thinking of Style Bubble's Susanna Lau. You can't fail to be impressed by her endless enthusiasm for her subject, which has allowed her to make the move from digital media planner at an ad agency to commissioning editor of Dazed and Confused's website. Amazingly, her commitment to her blog has not faltered with the change of job and in addition to regular outfit posts – a charming mash of impulsive accessorising and considered clashes – she appraises new design talent in a wonderful stream of consciousness style.

Combining grit and gentrification, Street Etiquette duo Travis and Joshua are blazing a trail in the world of men's fashion from the streets of the Bronx. Both are inspired by the Harlem renaissance and take great pleasure in the juxtaposition of old and new, but each has their own defining look. For Travis, a marketing student and part-time lifeguard, it's his love of the Oxford shirt and unusual colour palettes – while medical student and Topshop employee Joshua favours Clarks desert boots. The pleasure here lies in spotting the little design details: a tie that turns out to be denim, a pair of shoes that appear box-fresh but that are actually 30 years old, trainers teamed with a coloured shirt complete with patterned hanky peeking from the pocket. It's a clash of past and present, bringing together the best of both.

Vika is equivalent to Madonna in the fashion blogosphere. She requires no surname and no introduction (apart from this one, obviously). She doesn't have her own style blog but that hasn't stopped her being elevated to cult status in e-fashion circles. Pictures of the Russian designer usually surface around fashion weeks on street-style blogs. From there they are quickly syndicated around the world to rapturous applause. Her constantly evolving style has captured the imaginations of legions of surfers, but the former stylist does have one constant: her hair. Rumour has it that her distinctive tresses inspired Stefano Pilato, creative director of Yves Saint Laurent, to create the iconic bowl wigs that featured in the AW08 catwalk show and campaign.

You get the impression that, unlike many style bloggers, Zana Bayne has fun. She isn't dressing purely to take a picture for her site, but for a good old-fashioned night on the town. Her blog follows her on her jolly journey from San Francisco to Berlin and, most recently, New York City. She has an idiosyncratic look, with a mop of thick-sprung black curls and eyes so supernaturally turquoise that you wonder how she got them (does it have something to do with devouring the souls of children?). Her distinctive style is apparent not only in her clothing choices but in the locations in which she snaps her outfits: the dark, minimalistic chaos of her garments is complimented perfectly by the gloomy stairwells and graffitied walls which provide the backdrops to her shots.

Design student Karla is something of a rarity in fashion: with those firm, glistening thighs, she could snap a man's neck in a way that would make Jack Bauer proud. It makes sense, then, that her thrifty wardrobe makes a point of showing off those shapely pins. Teaming little skirts or tight shorts with just-on-the-good-side-of-bad 80s blazers, clompy shoes, dangly earrings and the occasional floppy hat has proven to be a winning formula. She has Quiksilver and American Apparel advertising campaigns under her snazzy belt to prove it.

Judy Aldridge is the mother of Jane Aldridge, a fashion blogger who has taken the world by storm with her site Sea of Shoes. However, unlike Jane, Judy has not received a phone call from Kanye West telling her how totally awesome she is (and we all know that a call from Kanye is the true measure of modern success). Nor has she been invited to design a range of shoes for Urban Outfitters, or decked out in Chanel haute couture for the Crillon Ball. But this former model-turned-designer has a knack for dressing in a way that transcends age (specifically hers) and it is this quality that landed her a feature (alongside pesky Jane!) in American Vogue this year. Her mixture of denim, in-your-face 80s gold and designer shoes has become a trademark.

Elizabeth Ammerman views dressing a little differently to most of us. Whereas the weather tends to be deciding factor for me, her main consideration is the imaginary apocalypse that she's currently living through. In her own words: "I wear the few pieces as aggressively and in as many ways as I can think of to survive." It's not hard to believe that she is currently interning under Christian Joy, the costume designer behind Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Elizabeth is also studying at the Pratt institute in New York and that clearly influences her blog, which has a student digs vibe about it. She looks something like a Gareth Pugh-wearing, space-age Shakespearean punk trying to give Lady Gaga a run for her money.